Broken Wings
by KettrickenNightwielder
Summary: Yuuri had been missing and assumed dead for months when he suddenly reappears at the edge of known space with two mysterious alien companions, only to be captured by space pirates. Yuuri and Victor manage to escape, but are forced to leave the Fae prince Yuri behind. Yuuri calls on his old friend Otabek to stage a risky rescue. Yep. Hero Otabek rescues Fairy Yuri. In Space.
1. Chapter 1

You know when you get a wild idea in your head and it just won't go away? Yep.

Please read and review!

Yuri forced himself to breathe as he pressed his back against the cold metal wall of the hallway. He was fairly certain he would never get used to how . . . empty it always felt out here. He tried to make his mind feel clear like the echoing hallway they were currently huddled up in, and pushed his mind out into the next corridor. There were two men, but heading away from the direction Yuuri had gestured towards a moment ago.

Now that he knew the way ahead was clear, Yuri turned back and nodded at the two men behind him. Yuuri still had the same nervous but determined look on his face as he had since they'd managed to slip out of their cell a few minutes ago. Victor, if anything, seemed worse than he had the last time Yuri had looked at him. All this skittering about, dodging crew members and hunkering against walls was clearly not doing his injuries any favors.

Both of them managed to return Yuri's nod, though, so he slid around the corner, carefully keeping his senses extended outwards on the lookout. As they approached the next intersection, Yuri paused as he felt someone coming towards them. He reached out and carefully pushed the other two against the wall with his forearm.

Shifting his concentration from trying to sense nearby minds, Yuri began projecting a sense of calm normalcy. The rough looking character that rounded the corner strode past the three of them hunkered down along the wall without a glance. Once he had disappeared, Yuri released his projection with an exhausted sigh and wiped beads of sweat from his forehead.

Yuuri caught his eye and pointed ahead.

"There. Down that hallway are the escape pods."

Almost there, then. Good. Yuri hadn't used his telepathy this much in his entire life, and it was taking a toll. He nodded and checked again to make sure none of their captors were nearby. When he felt the surrounding area was clear, he stepped away from the wall and edged himself toward the corridor Yuuri had pointed out.

A quick peak around the corner revealed a short hallway with two doors on either side, and one at the end. No crew members in sight. Yuri waved the other two up and stepped into the hallway. At a gesture from the dark-haired companion, Yuri shifted Victor onto his shoulder.

Apparently it was pure bad luck that Victor was the only one their captors been willing to injure. Apparently Yuuri's claim of being a well-known dancer was not exaggerated, since several of the shady crew members had recognized him on sight. That just left Yuuri and Victor. After much debate, they decided to limit their 'curiosity' to just one of them in case anything too permanent happened so that they would still have one piece of _pristine merchandise._ The leader had decided that Yuri being younger might make him more valuable.

Yuri wasn't sure if Victor's wings would ever fully recover.

Yuuri opened the control panel on the nearest doorway and quickly began tapping away at the strange interface. He seemed pretty familiar with it, which was good, since Yuri still couldn't comprehend anything of the strange language and technology here. Of course, Yuuri was from around here, and even piloted a ship of a smaller but similar design.

It wasn't until Yuri realized that his vision was starting to blur that he realized that he hadn't been checking for any approaching minds. When he did so now, he cursed under his breath just as Yuuri managed to get the door open.

Yuri shoved Victor into the human's arms, mentally wincing as he felt his arm brush against Victor's wounded wing.

"There's a bunch of them coming. They're onto us. Get the old man out of here, I'll distract them."

Yuuri frowned in confusion, "What? No! We can't-hurry up! "

Yuri rolled his eyes and blew his blonde bangs out of his face, "Hurry, piglet!"

With a shove, the two older men landed in a heap inside the small escape pod's floor. A moment later the door shut automatically. Yuri waved his hands to either side of him, conjuring an illusion of each of his companions behind him, giving them each a blaster like their captors carried around all the time. Yuuri's face appeared in the small window of the pod's door, his face torn between anger and fear as he apparently tried yelling at Yuri through what proved to be a soundproof door.

Yuri gave him a firm nod, and turned to the end of the hallway just as a handful of men came into view. Yuri heard a slight click, and what sounded like a puff of air. A quick glance out the little window showed the pod floating away, nothing but black and stars behind it. With a frown, Yuri flicked a finger towards the window, throwing up the image of an empty pod.

Turning back to his approaching captors, Yuri noticed how hard it was getting to keep his illusions up. He hadn't realized it, but in order to do so he was no longer able to maintain the slight link that he used to translate the strange human language that Yurri called 'Basic'. The leader of the pirate crew that had been holding them prisoner for several days now was speaking, but Yuri could no longer tell what he was saying.

Yuri, and consequently the illusions of his two companions, slowly began backing away from the men pointing their blasters at him. The leader, Yuri thought his name was something like J, was still babbling at him. Yuri stumbled as a wave of exhaustion swept over him. To much use of his powers. He couldn't keep this up much longer, but he had to buy as much time as he could for Yuuri and Victor to get away.

The men opposite him suddenly had strangely confused looks on their faces, but before Yuri could even wonder why, he felt his back press against the end of the hallway. He winced as he glanced to the side to see a scowling and armed Victor standing halfway through the wall.

"Well, crap," he thought. Then he saw his illusion flicker into nothingness before he felt himself start to fall and everything turned black.


	2. Chapter 2

They'd been free of the pirates for about a day and a half, by Victor's estimate. This place didn't seem much better than the first station, however. Victor leaned over and grabbed Yuuri's wrist.

"Yuuri, you're sure about this?"

The dark haired man smiled kindly at Victor and patted the hand Victor had set on his wrist before answering in his broken way, since his Fae was barely better than Victor's basic.

"All good. Otabek old friend, protector." He frowned for a moment as if trying to remember something, then came up with the title for a palace guard. Victor pondered that for a moment before deciding that Yuuri must mean that this man was a bodyguard. After a moment, Victor gave a firm nod and they pushed into the dark doorway.

Otabek had been on this station for two days, sitting in the local watering hole without picking up a job. He wasn't too worried, since he'd been working steadily for several months now, but he was getting a little bored. He sipped his drink and checked the social logs for this quadrant once more. His icon was still flashing that he was available for hire, so he began swiping through everything posted nearby.

Mostly there were only little jobs that wouldn't be worth his time. Only a couple of them even meant leaving this station.

If he wasn't so patient, he may have sighed. Instead, he kept scrolling.

"Otabek?"

He looked up towards the door at the sound of a familiar voice.

"Yuuri?"

The dark haired young man had a taller, cloaked figure leaning on his shoulder as they made their way to his little table. Otabek reached over and grabbed a third chair from the empty table next to his.

The young dancer helped his companion down into one chair before flashing a relieved smile Otabek's way as he sat himself.

"You have no idea how glad I was to see you logged in at this station!"

Otabek raised one eyebrown, "I'm . . . surprised to see you, Yuuri."

Especially since news reels of his disappearance and subsequant assumed death were pretty unavoidable for several months last year.

Yurri blushed slightly and waved a dismissive hand, "Oh, yeah. I guess you'd heard I was dead, huh?"

He gave a slight nod, "What happened?"

Yuuri sighed, "It's a long story. Basically, my navcom shorted out mid-jump. I came out in some totally uncharted space. Luckily, I was near a planet." He shot a smile to his companion, "They were technilogically pretty advanced considering they had zero interest in space travel."

Otabek blinked. Pretty much every civilization ever discovered had at least some curiosity about the stars.

"Anyway, Victor and his family took me in while I tried to fix my ship. But, I'm not much of a mechanic beyond the basics, so it took awhile. A couple of my new friends came with me to see about entering the Alliance. It was a long jump, obviously, so we were running on fumes when we came out at the Third Rim Station."

Otabek's head jerked up, and Yuuri nodded knowingly.

"Yeah. I guess it was taken over by pirates awhile back?"

"Privateers, technically."

Yuuri rolled his eyes, "Privateers don't kidnap travellers in an adrift ship that just asked to dock and refuel."

Otabek hummed an agreement.

"Anyway, we managed to escape in a pod, but Victor's younger brother is still there. He stayed behind as a distraction. I got the pod as far away from the station as I could before risking a distress call. By some miracle, a cargo ship picked us up before the pirates. I used a public terminal and saw that you were logged in here. And . . . here we are."

Yuuri leaned across the table with a determined glint in his eye, "I need to hire you to take us to the Core. We need to get the Council to help us rescue Yuri."

Otabek blinked and tilted his head in confusion. It must have been enough because Yuuri explained further.

"Oh, Victor's brother is also named Yuri. It's a little confusing. But, we don't have time, Otabek! Please, you know I'm good for the fee!"

Otabek glanced over to Yuuri's mysterious companion as he thought.

"The Council won't help against their own privateers without proof."

Yuuri's eyes now burned with distress, "I-I know it's not much, but what choice do we have, Otabek? They . . . hurt Victor. Who knows what they've done to Yuri."

He remained quiet as Yuuri's companion leaned toward the him and pushed his hood back. Otabek took in the stranger's long, oddly silver hair and delicately pointed ears. Otabek had seen a lot of different races, but never one like this 'Victor' that Yuuri had dragged in here.

After the two of them whispered back and forth in a lanquage Otabek was sure he'd never heard before, Yuuri sighed in defeat and nodded to Victor.

"There's one other thing that Victor wants me to tell you. We were going to keep it quiet but . . ." Yuuri sighed and glanced around before leaning closer to Otabek and lowering his voice before continuing, "Victor and Yuri are the eldest sons of their planet's ruler. Yuri is actually the heir."

Otabek remembered to blink after a moment.

Yuuri seemed to take that as a cue to continue, "So, see, it's even more important that we get him back safe!"

When Otabek looked into the bright blue eyes of the alien prince across the table, there was such desperate hope there that Otabek really had no other option. After a long moment, he nodded.

Yuuri gave a gleeful squeal and clapped his hands, but Otabek held up a cautionary hand.

"But we can't go to the Council. Days there, days in red tape, there isn't time."

Yuuri practically deflated, "But . . . what else . . .?"

Otabek nodded decisively, "Leave it to me."

And so the three of them went back to his ship. It was larger than Yuuri's. Since the dancer didn't have need for a lot of cargo space, his ship was more of a glorified shuttle. Just the cockpit, engine room, a small cabin, and the 'living space' that held the kitchen and dining area as well as the small cleared space that Yuuri used to practice in any time he was out in space for awhile.

Otabek's line of work called for a little more flexibility.

His ship had four total cabins, two cargo bays, a galley with two decent sized tables, as well as a lounge area for down time, two escape pods, and of course the engine room. His cargo might be anything from crates to passengers, sometimes both, so his ship was surprisingly large for a one man crew.

He settled his two passengers into the lounge before heading up to the cock pit. After going through the various checks and clearances, he pulled the ship out of dock and programmed in a destination halfway between here and Third Rim Station. After checking that the autopilot was running smoothly, he made his way back to the lounge.

Yuuri had seated his silver haired friend at one of the tables and was helping to carefully remove the cloak. Despite Yuuri's cautious movements, there were still several winces and hisses from Victor.

Which made sense as the cloak was finally moved aside to reveal the four transluscent wings between Victor's shulder blades. They were and irridescent, shimmering sliver with flashes of blue here and there, shaped and segmented like old-Earth dragonflies in children's history books.

They twitched for a few moments after the cloak was off of them, then seemed to settle enough that Otabek could see what Yuuri had meant about the pirates hurting Victor. There were several slashes through the shimmering membrane, and the tip of one of the smaller ones had even been sliced clean off. It even looked like a couple of small holes had been burned through one area.

Yuuri smiled sadly at Otabek when their eyes met as Otabek made his way over and sat across the table from the pair.

"Like I said, You know I'm good for it. As soon as I get back to a Core world and prove that I'm not dead, I should be able to access my accounts again. If not, I"m sure I'll be taking on jobs again in no time, once word of my miraculous return leaks."

Yuuri rolled his eyes at that last part, but Otabek waved it off.

"Not an issue. Any chance you learned to fight in the last year?"

Yuuri winced, "Well, no. The Fae, Victor's people, are actually pretty non-violent."

That kind of jived with the luck Otabek was having with this job. He had half a dozen ideas swirling in his head when Victor spoke up.

"I think I can help, though."

Yuuri looked as confused as Otabek as the silver-haired prince continued, "My abilities are coming back already, now that my wings are healing. If I'm careful, by the time we get back, I should be able to help."

Otabek tilted his head slightly before asking, "Abilities?"


	3. Chapter 3

Otabek had worked with Pirate King JJ several times in the past, and they had parted on good terms. Most people didn't realize that JJ's business dealings actually had quite a few legitimate ventures as well, and he occasionally had to call on outside help for deliveries or protection contracts.

Thus Otabek.

So, when Otabek had pulled up to JJ's station and requested a meeting with the Pirate King himself, he wasn't at all suprised when it was granted. He docked his ship (conveniently next to Yuuri's shuttle) and made his way to the air lock. There was one crew member standing by to show him to JJ, but the man didn't seem to notice Yuuri or Victor at all, and didn't seem to find it strange that Otabek paused in the open doorway long enough for his two companions to slide out before him.

When they reached the first hallway intersection, Otabek's guide took him in the opposite direction of Yuuri and Victor. Otabek's main purpose at this point was to buy enough time for Victor to secret Yuuri onto his own shuttle, and then skitter back to Otabek's ship. Victor had volunteered a little demonstration of this when he had first mentioned his 'abilities' and they were trying to come up with a rescue plan.

Otabek would say he was speachless when the silver haired man had completely disappeared from his vision, but those who knew Otabek were aware of the fact that he was normally a pretty quiet guy.

Fairly quickly, Otabek was being shown into JJ's office.

"Otabek! What a pleasant surprise! What brings you to my little corner of the galaxy, hmm?"

Otabek took the offered seat with a nod, "Passing though on a job. I heard something I thought you might be interested in."

JJ grinned and poured a couple of drinks, offering one to Otabek as he asked, "Oh, and what is that? Don't keep me in suspense!"

"Alliance crew at the last waystation I stopped at said they were coming here for a surprise inspection." He waited until JJ made a firm eye contact with him befor continuing, "They had some . . . mysterious engine trouble just before I left. Could take them awhile to fix it."

The pirate blinked for a moment, then threw back his head and laughed, "Otabek you old son of a gun! I knew you were good people!" After his laughter died away, JJ's face turned curious, "I wonder what this inspection is about? I thought I was in good standing with the local governor."

Otabek shrugged. This was the part where he figured it was best to not try and fill in too many blanks. A well developed cover story might just seem too suspicious.

"Dunno. Something about special cargo? I only overheard a little. Thought you could use a heads up if there was soem . . . special cargo you needed to deal with, and I was passing nearby."

"Ah, a delivery?" Otabek nodded and downed his drink as JJ continued, "Any chance you'll be passing back this way soon?"

Otabek shrugged one shoulder, "Could. After this delivery, schedule's clear."

JJ's expression turned thoughtful, "Hmm. Perhaps I could hire you then? See, I do have some . . . cargo that I'd rather the Alliance remain unaware of for the time being. Perhaps you could . . . hold onto it for me for a few days? Take it with you on your run, then bring it back my way once this annoying inspection is dealt with."

Otabek frowned slightly, "Hmm. Maybe. How much cargo? My current shipment-"

JJ waved a hand, "Oh no, this is just a tiny slip of goods, really. Why, throw it in one of your extra cabins. As long as you aren't planning on having any other passengers?"

Otabek shook his head and gave a small grunt that was meant to be a negative. JJ seemed to take it that way anyway.

"Excellent! Well, I hate to keep you from your job, and I apparently need to prepare for this inspection. So sorry to cut your visit short, but we can catch up on your return, right?!"

Otabek nodded, and set his glass down on the desk before rising and following JJ out into the hall. JJ waved off the man who had escorted Otabek here, and the two of them wove through the halls to the brig. As the door slid open, a figure was revealed huddled in the corner. The family resemblance to Victor wasn't paricularly strong, but there were several features that made it obvious that this was the right person.

His shoulder length hair wasn't just blonde, much like Victor's was actually more of a silver than just grey. Even after days of confinement, his hair had an unmistakable metallic golden sheen. A pair of long, pointed ears poked out from the shining strands.

And, of course, most notable would be the wings. They were shaped similarly to Victor's but shimmered in shades of gold and copper compared to the blues and silvers of the older Fae.

Yuri glared down at the antique hand restraints linking his two wrists, which were rubbed raw from the bare metal. After Victor and his little piggy had gotten away, Yuri's captors hadn't been terribly happy with him. They'd pretty much kept it to a few bruises, thankfully.

Now that his telepathic abilities were out of the bag, handling those had become a priority to the pirates. It was really just a fluke when they did figure it out. In an effort to keep him restrained, they'd pulled these ancient hand cuffs out of who knew where, and slapped them to his wrists. He had winced at the slight burning sensation. It wasn't until they had gone to change them out to a different restraint to chain him to his cell wall that they had all found out that apparently the iron in the cuffs not only burned his skin slightly, but completely killed all of his mental abilities.

They srcounged up another set of the cuffs for his ankles instead of attachigng Yuri to the wall. Now he was mostly used to the burning, but he did take care to keep as much of the metal as possible off of his bare skin. The worst part of it all was that he now had no way of knowing what any of his captors were saying.

When he heard the unmistakable sound of approaching footsteps, he sat up and scooted himeslf into the corner. A moment later, the door opened to reveal the pirate leader and a new face. Yuri glared at them both as they looked down at him like a small fluffy animal they were considering adopting.

After a brief conversation between the two, though mostly on JJ's part, the newcomer gestured to the burns circling Yuri's ankles. There was another brief conversation, then the new guy crossed over to Yuri.

As the man stooped and slid his arms under Yuri's shouders and knees, he pressed his face close to Yuri's ear and purposefully whipered, "Vkusno"

Yuri was so shocked to hear a word from his native language, that he forgot to fight being picked up. Before he knew it, the stranger had lifted Yuri and slid out of the cell. Yuri blinked up at the strange face, then glanced down at the man's right arm under Yuri's knees as he tried desperately to think.

Where had the man heard Vkusno? It had to be Victor or Yuuri. But how? Who was this man? Had Yuri been purchased? He knew he had been referred to as merchandise and cargo before he lost his translating ablities.

Could Yuri actually consider trusting this stranger?

"I'll message you in a few days when my job is done, see if the inspection team is cleared out."

"Yes, of course, Otabek! I just have one question for you."

Something in JJ's tone made Otabek more than a little nervous as he stopped not ten feet from the airlock to his ship. He picked his foot up and rotated ninety degrees to face JJ back down the hall. It should just look like he was turning back to acknowledge the other man, but he also took care both to take that step _towards_ the airlock, and to turn so that his right arm was closer to JJ.

"Hmm?"

JJ smirked and waved a curious finger at him, "Did you really think I didn't know that you were friends with the famous Yuuri Katsuki?"

It took every ounce of Otabek's famous calm to not react right away. "Mmm? Yes, I knew him. Took a job as his bodyguard just a few weeks before he went missing."

"Missing? Really."

Suddenly half a dozen pirates spilled into the hallway, blasters trained on Otabek and the little prince in his arms. Achingly slowly, Otabek lowered Yuri's legs out of his grasp to free his right hand.

"JJ?"

"Where is the dancer and the other fairy, Otabek."

Otabek scrunched his eyebrows down into a look of confusion, but remained characteristacally silent.

Yuri had been a little relieved that the man seemed to be putting him down, but his arm was still tightly clasping Yuri to his shoulder, and Yuri's toes just barely brushed the floor. He frowned up at the stranger, who still looked the same, but Yuri could feel that he was undeniably tenser than he had been a moment before. Of course, the sudden appearance of six armed pirates was clearly not a good sign.

Yuri thought the stranger may be an idiot. If things were going south, which appeared to be the case, he was going about this all wrong. There was still a pretty good chance that 'King JJ' would want Yuri to remain relatively unharmed. In that case, the new guy would be smart to use Yuri as a shield. Instead, he had positioned Yuri almost entriely behind his own body.

There was more talking that Yuri didn't understand. He rolled his eyes, despite the immediate threat to his safety. This was all just getting annoying and old.

Then the pirates opened fire and the man holding Yuri ducked down into a crouch, curling himself over Yuri protectively. Yuri gave a small shriek and instinctively curled up into a smaller target, watching the man raise his right arm and some sort of glowing shield of light bloomed into existance out of the cuff around the man's wrist.

As blaster fire began ricocheting off of the shield, Yuri turned his head away from the pirates, which gave him a great view of the airlock door behind them spiralling open


	4. Chapter 4

The air had a faintly scorched scent, and the blaster fire flashed randomly as some of the shots angled off of the stranger's shield, and some just shot past them. Really, some of these guys were such poor shots, if Yuri or his rescuer were hit, it would be more of a fluke than anything.

Yuri was pretty used to the sounds and feel of these space ships, by this point. Even before they'd left home, he and Victor had spent a lot of time on Yuuri's ship while he stumbled through his repairs. So, he recognized the combination of sounds that air and hydrolics mixed with metal sliding against metal as the air lock door continued to open. The first thing he saw on the other side was a pair of hands, then a face ducking into sight.

"Victor?"

But Yuri's elder brother didn't spare him more than a glance before thrusting his hands out into the hallway before the door was even fully open. Yuri watched in shock as two stripes of frost suddenly appeared on the floor of the hallway and shot towards Yuri and the man shielding him.

By the time the two streaks had gotten to Yuri, knee high crystaline structures were erupting from them. Yuri whipped his head around to follow their path as they shot past to either side of Yuri and the stranger. There was a brief pause as the pirates were apparently stunned by the sudden display.

To be fair, Yuri was pretty surprised as well. Victor's ice creations were famous back home for their grace and elegance. His art had become such an obsession that Victor had given up the throne when Yuri was just a small child. Victor created stunning displays with intricate details that regularly left his audience speachless.

These raw, jagged lines of ice were the sloppiest things Victor had probably made since he was a small child, but it was also the fasted Yuri had ever seen Victor work. It was an explosive creation of ice and frost that caused the temperature in the hallway to noticibly plummet.

Before anyone knew what was happening, The first two pirates were already encased in ice up to their knees. Moments later all of them were frantically trying to break free as the ice creeped up their legs and torsos.

JJ turned back towards them with an angry snarl and fought through the ice now coating his shoulder to point the gun at Victor. Before he could pull the trigger, his hand was coated with ice as thick as Yuri's wrist.

As soon as the pirates were all clearly immobilized, the stranger's shield disappeared as he smoothly stood and pivoted toward the airlock. Within heartbeats, the man was shoving past Victor onto the ship and slapping the controls that evidently closed the airlock behind them.

At this point, Yuri was fairly certain the man had forgotten that he was holding him as he broke out into a light jog through the unfamiliar ship. Victor followed, happy tears streaming down his cheeks as he smiled at Yuri.

Yuri's eyes were wide in shock and confusion as Victor began to babble in their native tongue, "Oh, Yuri! I'm so glad you're alright! We were so worried."

"Victor, what's going on? Who is this?"

"He's Otabek, a friend of Yuuri's! He's a soldier, I think? I'm not sure. I have been trying not to use my abilities so I could save my strength."

At this point, they reached what Yuri recognized as the 'cock pit' where the ship would be piloted from. It was fairly similar to Yuuri's ship. The stranger, Otabek, finally seemed to recall his burden, and set Yuri down in one chair with a rattle of chains before claiming the other. He was flipping switches and pushing buttons before he'd even settled fully into the seat.

A small screen lit up in corner of the viewing glass with Yuuri's face, which immediately looked relieved when he saw Yuri. Yuuri babbled for a bit in Basic, which of course, Yuri didn't understand.

Otabek gave a grunt that Yuri assumed was supposed to be an affirmative, and suddenly the ship was humming with what Yuri recognized as engines powering up. Yuri was barely listening as Victor alternated between catching Yuri up on the last few days, and sighing over the burns and abbrasions on Yuri's wrists and ankles.

"At least your wings seem alright."

Yuri nodded curtly, "Yeah, they hardly even touched them."

Otabek and Yuuri had been talking to each other over the comm, and after awhile the ship fell out of light speed, Yuuri's smaller craft visible ahead of them. The two pilots continued to talk, and Yuri watched the smaller craft slowly pull along side the one he was currently on. After a few moments, there was a sliight vibration in the floorboards.

Otabek hit a few more switches, then turned an unwavering stare towards Yuri. After a long silent moment, the man's eyes dropped to Yuri's wrists. He reached over and lifted Yuri's wrists, turning it slightly until the cuff slid down and brushed a fresh area of skin. Yuri hissed at the new burning sensation, and Otabek frowned.

Yuri yelped again as the man scooped him up once more into his arms.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

Yuri scrambled to try and get a grip on the man's shirt as he was swept back down the hallway and through a door into a room with several padded benches bolted to the walls and floors. Yuri was carefully deposited on one, and then Otabek went over to a nearby cabinet. Victor had, of course, followed them, and was still rambling.

"He's a quiet fellow. Which isn't bad, I suppose, since I wouldn't have been able to understand him otherwise."

After digging around for a moment, Otabek pulled out what seemed like an odd pair of pliers and came back to Yuri. He knealt down on the floor in front of Yuri and looked up into his eyes.

Otabek was fairly certain that Yuri couldn't understand him, so he tried holding his flat palm out in a still gesture as he spoke.

"Try not to move."

He raised an eyebrow in question, and the little blonde stared cautiously at him for a moment. Eventually, he nodded briefly. Otabek turned his attention to the cuffs around wrists that seemed so dainty compared to the heavy metal restraints. After a brief study, he decided to just go for the hinge and raised the laser cutter to them.

He depressed the control and there was a brief flash of red. The two Fae gasped in surprise, but the cuff was falling from Yuri's wrist before the smell of hot metal had even wafted up to them. Three more bursts from the cutter and Otabek was setting the restraints aside on the floor in a jangle of chains on the metal floor.

He looked up into the pale green eyes and asked, "Better?"

Otabek was slightly surprised when the blushing reply of, "Thank you" came out in accented basic.

Apparently the prince knew a little of the language at least.

Otabek nodded and stood as Yuuri entered the lounge.

"Alright, my ship's docked and secured. They did take a few things, but nothing crucial, really. Just a stash of credits and food, mostly."

Otabek just nodded as Yuuri walked into Victor's waiting arms.

"Crazy fairy, bursting in like some kind of hero in a story. I guess it worked though."

"OH!"

All eyes turned to Yuri, who was blinking owlishly at Yuuri. "I can understand you again. That was fast."

Yuuri blinked, "Already? Your wrists still look pretty red."

The smaller man nodded, "I don't think it's the wounds, so much as the cuffs themselves. We have a metal on our world, you call it 'iron' I think, that we use to . . . inhibit our powers. It burns us to the touch, though not usually this badly, but it can poison us over time."

Otabek grunted and glanced down at the cuffs. He bent to scoop them up, and walked over to the open tool cabinet. He returned the cutter to its spot, and dumped the cuffs into an empty box.

"You should be fine on the ship then. It's mostly made up of more modern materials and alloys."

Victor nodded thoughtfully as he joined the conversation, "Hmm. Yeah, we never had trouble on Yuuri's ship, either."

"Now what?"

Yuuri's question had all four men exchanging glances, but it was Yuri who scoffed and replied.

"The original plan. We see about opening negotiations with your 'Alliance' before heading home." He frowned, "Though, maybe we should have brought more people."

Yuuri's face was the picture of guilt as he answered, "I'm so sorry. When I was last through here, it was a very safe part of space! I performed at that station several times. That's how I knew the layout so well."

Yuri waved a hand, "Meh. We just need to move forward."

Victor tapped a finger to his chin thoughtfully, "I may be mistaken, but won't we have to pass through this area again to return home?"

Yuuri nodded, "Yes. We will want to refuel before we head back to your planet. My ship barely made it to your world and back to this station on one fill up. I checked though, and thankfully JJ did have my ship topped off. We can make it to the Core no problem, but we shouldn't risk going straight to your world. There wouldn't be enough fuel to make it all the way back."

Victor nodded decisively, "Then we will need to hire protection for the return trip. Someone who knows the area and it's dangers, perhaps?" Pale blue eyes slid to Otabek, a wry smirk on his lip. "Perhaps Yuri's hero is available for hire, long term?"

Yuri gasped and stuttered for a moment, pink rising up the back of his neck and along his pointed ears as he finally bit out, "Hero? Stupid Victor, what are you talking about?"

Victor grinned down at his brother and switched to their own language, "I was watching for you two through the viewfinder by the door. I saw him carrying you like a princess in a children's tale! How he shielded you from those pirates, and how you clutched at his neck!"

"Victor!"

Yuri glanced up at Otabek, eyes darting away. After a moment, he cleared his throat and returned to Basic to reply, "My idiot brother has a point. You seem . . . capable. Do you take bodyguard work?"

Otabek opened his mouth to reply, but Yuuri dove in with a wide grin, "He does! I've hired him loads of time when I take jobs in . . . shadier parts of the Alliance. He's saved me several times from . . . overzealous fans."

Yuri turned back to the man in question, who simply shrugged. Yuri waited a moment, but when the man didn't seem likely to say anything, Yuri rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Well, then? Would you agree to a long term contract? My bodyguard while we deal with this Council Yuuri talks about, then back to my world? We don't really have the 'credits' you people use, but I'm sure we can come up with something for payment."

Otabek met his eyes steadily for a long silent moment, then nodded simply.


End file.
